Abstract
The chapter deals with the civil security systems of the Central European Visegrad Group (V4) countries (Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary) and their capacity to deal with risks. It builds on both geopolitical similarities, as well as on the similar nature of threats that these countries are facing.
Historically, before the year 1989, security systems were closely related to military threats and the prevailing concept was the civil defense. After 1990, with the collapse of communism, the systems were gradually adjusted to the changed circumstances as well as to the new types of risks that emerged.
The chapter starts with an outline of the most typical threats in all four countries after which the reaction of their civil security systems to "signature crises" is mapped. The case of large floods of 2002 and 2010 is then taken to illustrate the functioning of crisis management in practice as well as the most important lessons learned.
Finally, the issue of regional cooperation is addressed. The chapter concludes that the civil security systems of the V4 countries are now in place and relatively well capable of dealing with emergencies, be it alone or within the framework of bilateral or international (EU, NATO) cooperation.
Despite a large number of similarities, all of the four countries encountered somewhat different challenges in their adjustment. While the performance is assessed positively in the Czech Republic and Poland, in Slovakia and Hungary more lessons were learned, followed by changes to their civil security systems.